


Love Me

by MelyndaR



Series: Breaking series [4]
Category: Victorious
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-11
Updated: 2015-01-11
Packaged: 2018-03-07 05:20:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,529
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3162734
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MelyndaR/pseuds/MelyndaR
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tori reveals a secret to her family and friends and with the help of some of them comes to the conclusion of how to deal with that secret.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

It was well past midnight, but for the first time in a month, Tori Vega found that she couldn't go to sleep. She couldn't stop thinking… couldn't stop thinking about the memories of what that man had done to her, about what Jade and Beck had revealed earlier that afternoon, about Roxy, and about… the other thing.

She sat up, pitting her head in her hands as the blankets fell away from her body. Tori got out of bed and began to pace back and forth across her bedroom. If Jade had figured it out, did that mean that other people had? Had Jade even figured it out, or was she just being paranoid? She really didn't think she was, and that was what bothered her the most. If Jade knew, had she told Beck? Their other friends, maybe? Had her parents realized what was going on?

Tori leaned back against the wall, closing her eyes at the very thought. She slid down the wall, once again burying her head in her hands.

A shaft of light poured into her otherwise dark bedroom, and then a careful voice whispered softly, "Tori?"

Tori groaned, not lifting her head as she ordered, "Go away, Trina."

But just like every other time that Trina had found her awake at some odd hour; the elder Vega sister did nothing of the sort. Instead she pushed the bedroom door open a little further and slipped into the room and folded herself onto the floor beside her sister, despite the fact that she had obviously already been asleep at some recent point during the night.

"More nightmares again?" Trina asked softly.

Tori shook her head. "I can't sleep."

"You can't, or are you making yourself stay awake again?"

"I can't," Tori reiterated, an edge creeping into her voice despite the fact that it probably was a valid question.

"Why?"

Tori shook her head again, looking down at her hands as she picked at the shag carpet underneath her fingertips. She exchanged a question for a question, asking, "Do you know that Beck and Jade are married?"

"What?!"

Tori nodded, still keeping her dull gaze fastened on the carpet as she said in a monotone that was just as disconnected, "They even have a kid. Well, Jade has a kid; she's Beck's step-daughter."

"Jade cheated on him?"

Tori shook her head.

"Then what?" Trina asked.

Tori took a labored breath, answering vaguely, "Let's just say that there's a really good reason that Jade has been so understanding about what's going on with me."

"Oh…" Trina breathed. A thick pause and then, "How long ago did she get pregnant?"

"In eighth grade. She and Beck apparently got married on her sixteenth birthday."

Trina sat back beside of her, looking understandably startled as she whispered, "Wow."

"Yeah," Tori croaked.

It was odd; during the daytime, not much had changed between the two of them. They were the same sort of sisters as they had always been – the kind that next to never got along, that got on one another's nerves all the time, sometimes just for the fun of it. But once the door to their parents' bedroom closed behind David and Holly each night, it was like someone flipped a switch. They became the other sort of sisters. They became people who actually cared about one another, who were actually considerate of one another… people who were actually  _friends_.

And when it hit Tori then that she needed to make sure that someone knew her secret, Trina was the nearest person to unload it on. Since they were in "nighttime mode" it didn't even seem like a bad idea.

"Hey, Trina?" Tori whispered after a pause as she finally looked over at her big sister.

"Yeah?"

"Can I tell you something?"

Trina's eyes were wide and unsuspecting as she repositioned so that she was sitting on her feet in front of her sister, their knees almost touching and murmured, "Of course you can, anything at all."

Two words. That was all that she needed to say. Only two words, three syllables, needed to be forced out of her throat and into the air, but Tori almost couldn't do it. She almost couldn't voice the fact aloud.

"Tori," Trina finally asked, reaching out to take one of her clammy hands. "What's wrong?"

Tori's voice was barely audible when she choked it out, and she could feel the familiar, dark emotions covering her like a suffocating blanket as those two words were forced into the air between the two sisters.

"I'm pregnant."

"What?" Trina breathed, yet by the look in her eyes she had obviously heard Tori. "You're having a baby?"

Tori leaned her head back against the wall, staring up at the dark ceiling as she spoke, "Maybe… yeah… I don't know."

"What do you mean?" Trina asked as gentle as she had ever been, but obviously not understanding what she was being told.

"I was just… I was so sure that I just wanted to get rid of it; I even had Lane get me in touch with an abortion clinic and I set up an appointment to have the surgery done. Now I just don't… I don't know."

"The baby… it's from the guy who…?"

Tori fought to keep from sobbing as she nodded. "That's all it could be."

"I knew that," Trina said, obviously regretting the question. "That considered I don't see how anyone could fault you for wanting to get rid of it."

"Yeah, I know; I thought so too… but then I saw Jade's daughter, how much Beck and Jade loved her, and Jade told me about when she was pregnant and I think that she might have changed my mind."

"Do Mom and Dad know?"

Tori shook her head. "I just found out a couple of weeks ago."

"What about Andre? Beck and Jade?"

Again, Tori shook her head. "You're the first person I've told. Jade just figured it out on her own."

"Well, what are you going to do?" Trina asked.

"I…" Tori's mind had been going a mile a minute, but with that question it slowed down as she realized one thing. "I'm going to cancel that appointment at the abortion clinic."

"You know that means that you'll have to tell Mom, Dad, and your friends, right?" Trina asked carefully.

Tori nodded, her resolve building as she spoke the words that she suddenly knew to be the right answer for her. "Yeah, but if I have to, then that's okay. I want to keep my baby."

 


	2. Chapter 2

Last night, the thought of carrying the pregnancy to term had been cemented in Tori's mind as if it was as obvious as the need to breathe, but right now she was having a hard time even breathing as she stared at her parents sitting together on one couch as she settled on the other one.

Trina sat down beside the girls' mother, sensing what was about to happen as Tori grabbed the television remote and muted the Sunday morning special.

Tori cleared her throat to find her voice before asking, "Hey, Mom, Dad, can I talk to you?"

"Sure, kiddo," David said. "What's going on?" Seeing his younger daughter's expression, he asked, "Are you doing okay? What's wrong?"

Tori swallowed, lowering her head to stare at her hands as she searched for the words. No matter how obvious were the words that she needed, they weren't coming out of her mouth any easier this time then they had last night.

Finally she just blurted it out, "Adam Carlisle got me pregnant."

Her mother gasped as her father's face became ashen as he said, almost to himself, "Your attacker."

Tori let herself cry a little as she said, "I'm sorry."

"No," Officer Vega said immediately. "Don't be; we know this isn't your fault." He looked at her in concern, asking, "You do know that, don't you, sweetheart?"

Tori nodded, but she still didn't lift her eyes from her hands setting clasped tensely in her lap.

"What do you want to do about it?" Holly asked.

The way that her mother phrased the question made Tori a little nervous, but she bit her lip and looked up at her parents as she said, "I think that I want to keep the baby, but I'm not sure." Tori didn't mention where she had gotten the idea since she wasn't sure if Jade and Beck were ready for Roxy's existence to become public knowledge, she just said, "I looked it up before I came downstairs earlier this morning, and there's a pro-life center near here that gives out free ultrasounds… I think I want to go there today."

"Does it have to be today?" Holly asked, obviously regretting having to ask the question. "Your father promised to fill in for a coworker today; he has to leave in an hour, and you know that I've got a business trip. I have to be in Washington, D.C. tomorrow morning, which means that my flight leaves later today. You have no idea how sorry we are, Tori, but your dad can't go with you, and if we can't be there and back within an hour and a half, then neither can I."

Tori closed her eyes once again, fighting the tears again as Trina spoke up, asking in irritation, "Can't one of you just reschedule something?"

"I'm sorry, Trina, but there's no one else to take the shift," Officer Vega apologized to both of his children.

"Mom?" Trina asked.

"You girls know that this teaching seminar is mandatory for me to keep my job, and it's the only time of year that they have it anywhere; I have to go."

Choking back her sobs, Tori managed to stand and race up into her bedroom before she broke down, crumpling onto her bed.

A minute later, someone knocked on her bedroom door.

"Go away!" Tori screamed through her tears.

"It's just me," Trina said, ignoring Tori's demand as she opened the door, closed it behind her, and sank down onto the edge of the bed beside her sister.

"Go away," Tori muttered, drawing her knees up in front of her and burying her face in the crook of her elbow.

"Dad just left and Mom's packing for her trip." A pause and then Trina put a hand on her hunched back, saying, "If you want me to, I'll take you to get that ultrasound."

"It's not nighttime; you're not supposed to be nice to me during the daytime," Tori muttered. "It's weird."

Tori could hear the smile in her sister's voice as Trina answered, "Well, if Mom and Dad hadn't have had plans today, we would still all be asleep since it's a Sunday morning. I say that makes it okay."

"That's really nice of you to offer," Tori said, sniffing as she turned her face so that her cheek was resting against her forearm and she could look up at Trina. "But it's just not the same."

"Do you still want to go today?" Trina asked.

"If I'm going to go at all, it has to be today," Tori answered. "I was going to have to skip school tomorrow morning so I could go get the abortion."

"It's that soon?" Trina asked, sounding surprised.

Tori nodded. "I wanted to get it done before people could start being able to tell what was going on." She snorted. "Apparently that didn't work too well though, since Jade figured it out."

"It won't be a bit of a problem for me to take you to the center," Trina repeated.

Tori shook her head. "No offense, but I think that I want someone else there with us too."

"Who?" Trina asked.

Tori shrugged, saying, "That's the thing: I don't know who."

Trina sighed and the girls just sat there like that for a minute, both of them thinking in silence as Trina rubbed circles on the back of the youngest Vega's yellow t-shirt.

"Do you think they were mad that I want to keep the baby?" Tori asked suddenly.

"Who? Mom and Dad? Nah; I think that they were scared for you because none of us really know how to handle this."

"That's why I have to go get this ultrasound," Tori tried to explain. "To see if I feel like what Jade described. One way or another, I need to figure out today what the right thing is for me to do."

Trina nodded and the duo sat in silence for another minute before Trina suggested hesitantly, "If you want someone else to come with us, then why not… call Andre?"

 


	3. Chapter 3

"Hey, dude, think fast!" Andre turned at just the right time to catch his phone when Beck threw it to him from across the Canadian's RV. "Caller ID says it's Tori."

"Hey, baby," Andre said with a smile as he answered his girlfriend's call.

"Andre, I need to talk to you."

There were tears in her voice – he could hear them even through the phone – and his expression fell into one of concern as he said, "Okay, I'm listening."

"Where are you?"

"At Beck's RV; why?"

"Can he hear you? And what about Jade?"

Andre was getting concerned as he answered her odd questions with, "Beck's digging some hotdogs out of the fridge to slap on his parents' grill and Jade and Roxy are already outside. Why; is something wrong?"

"Not exactly, but sort of."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Andre asked.

"Well, see, I think the reason that Jade and Beck told us everything that they did yesterday was because Jade had figured out that I was pregnant."

Andre reached behind him as the blood rushed from his face, fumbling for something to grab hold of to keep him on his feet while he asked, "You're what?"

Beck stood up from the mini refrigerator, looking at him in concern. Something in Andre's face must have given it away, because his best friend paled right along with him.

Beck jogged to the door of the RV and opened it, calling softly for Jade as Tori repeated softly, "Adam Carlisle got me pregnant."

"Oh, Tori, baby…" he slid down to sit at the table and put his head in his free hand, repeating, "A baby?"

"Do you hate me now?" Tori asked in a small, hurting voice. "Because if you want to break up with me, I totally get it."

Andre's head came back up as he said, his tone made sharp by surprise, "No!" He took a deep breath, looking wildly at Beck as the young step-father slid into the seat across from him.

"What's wrong?" Jade asked, coming into the RV with Roxy on her hip.

Beck glanced at her long enough to put a finger to his lips before he returned his gaze to watching Andre's expression, obviously trying to hear bits and pieces of Andre and Tori's conversation.

Uncomfortable with the undisguised scrutiny, Andre lowered his head to stare at the tabletop as he said solemnly, "I am not about to break up with you, Tori." Behind him, Jade inhaled sharply, but he ignored her as he continued, "and I absolutely do not hate you; I love you. Don't you know that?"

"I know you did," Tori answered softly. "But do you now that I'm pregnant?"

"Yes, of course I do. Always."

"What if I decide to keep the baby, raise a kid myself?"

Andre paused for a moment, rubbing at his forehead to abate the sudden headache that had exploded across his mind. "Then you won't be doing it by yourself;" he glanced at Beck across from him and then twisted in his seat to look at Jade and Roxy behind him as he said, "We'll be there to help you every step of the way."

"We who?" Tori asked tearfully.

"Ask her where she is," Beck ordered softly.

Not knowing what else to do, Andre obeyed.

"That's what I needed your help with," Tori said, explaining about the ultrasound before she finished, "I wanted you to come with Trina and me. We're already on our way there."

"I'll meet you there," Andre said without a second thought, and then Beck caught his eye, his expression conveying exactly what he wanted. "Hey, listen, Beck and Jade want to come too; do you want them there or not?"

Tori thought for a second before she answered, "Okay."

"Alright. We're getting ready to go as we speak. I'll see you in a few minutes, okay, beautiful?"

Tori laughed in surprise at the pet name that she obviously didn't think applied to her at the moment, a thread of bitterness winding through the sound. "Okay."

"And, hey," Andre said right before she hung up.

"Yeah?"

"I love you, Tori Vega."

She almost started crying as she answered, "I love you too, Andre Harris."

Andre hung up and sprung to his feet, already heading towards the door. "Where did Jade go?" he asked as he slammed the door of the RV open and clattered down the steps to the Olivers' driveway.

"Right here," Jade answered, her expression tense as she came quickly towards them from the direction of Beck's parents' house. She looked to Beck, explaining, "I left Roxy with your parents, told them that a friend had an emergency."

Beck nodded. As Andre opened the driver's side door to his car, he felt his best friend's hand on his shoulder. When he looked back at him, Beck had his other hand outstretched for the keys.

"Let me drive," Beck ordered.

"I can-"

"You'll wreck us before we're even two miles down the road."

Andre blinked at him but he knew both that Beck was right and that he didn't want to take the time to argue even if he hadn't been, so he tossed him the keys and slid into the back of the car while Jade was slamming the passenger door closed behind her.

Andre gave him the address and Beck peeled out of the driveway. Once they were on the road, Jade asked what Andre realized he hadn't yet verified. "So I was right about Tori being pregnant?"

"You knew?" Beck and Andre asked in surprise at the same time.

"I only suspected," Jade said, the palpable stress in the car sharpening her tone. "But she is?"

"Yeah," Andre muttered.

"So where am I actually going?" Beck asked.

"Tori said that she and Trina were on their way to a pro-life clinic so that Tori could get a free ultrasound."

Beck read between the lines and asked, "Is she considering an abortion, then?"

Andre shrugged, "I didn't ask; I just wanted to get to her as soon as possible."

Beck took that as his cue and stepped on the gas pedal just a bit harder.

* * *

"We're looking for Tori and Trina Vega," Andre said, stepping up to a nurse as he entered the small hospital lookalike.

The nurse, a tiny little Asian woman, smiled at him and said, "Relax… You're Andre Harris, right?"

He nodded, confused by how she might know his name.

"Tori told us that you would be coming. Now I need you to calm down, please. Calm down… and listen."

"Listen?" Jade repeated sharply from Andre's left side.

But that was when Andre heard what the nurse was talking about. Because that was when he heard his girlfriend cry out, "Oh my gosh, Trina, look; it's a foot! And it's little itty bitty witty hand…!"

Beck had apparently heard Tori too, because he released a deep breath of air from his lungs and raked his hands through his hair in a sigh of great relief. Jade looked over at the two boys, and intrigued smirk gracing her face before she started heading in the direction that Tori's and Trina's exclamations were coming from.

"What have we here?" Jade asked as she stopped and leaned against the doorway of the dark ultrasound room, sounding like the same old, disinterested girl that she had always been when it came to Tori Vega. Yet her eyes told a different, surprisingly kinder story.

"A baby!" Tori practically squealed. Andre stepped past Jade and into the room in time to see his girlfriend's eyes darken as she said softly, "I can't believe that I almost threw a baby away." She smiled softly, admitting, "I love him already." She asked Jade, "Does that make me crazy?"

Under normal circumstances, everyone knew full well what Jade's answer would have been, but this time the Goth just smiled indulgently at the Latina and said, "No, that just makes you a mother."

"Not necessarily…" Andre muttered to himself as he stared at the tiny guy on the ultrasound screen. "He looks like a pretty cool kid. I think I might stick around for the little guy," he glanced at Tori, adding, "If you'll let me."

Tori grabbed his hand and held on for all she was worth, fighting back tears and letting her smile voice her answer.

"I really am crazy, huh?" Andre asked Beck.

"Nah," Beck grinned and threw an arm lazily around his best friend's shoulders. "You're just in love."


End file.
